by Margi Preus
2 cups water or milk
Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cut in the shortening with a couple of forks, knives, or fingers until mixed in.
Make a “lake” in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the water or milk into the lake, then stir together to make a sticky dough. If you want to handle the dough with your hands, add more flour.
If you’re cooking on a fire or stove top, fry biscuit-sized patties in oil on both sides until done. Dough can also be wrapped around a clean stick and toasted over the fire like a marshmallow. Add more flour to make a less-sticky dough.
If you have an oven, spread dough in a greased cast-iron fry pan or eight-inch round or square cake pan and bake at 350° F until done.
* The voyageurs didn’t have baking powder, so they didn’t use any leavening. You can leave the baking powder out for a more authentic experience.
SOURCES
*RECOMMENDED FOR YOUNG READERS
Amb, Thomas M. The Voyageurs: Frontiersmen of the Northwest. Minneapolis: T. S. Denison, 1973.
*Durbin, William. The Broken Blade. New York: Delacorte, 1997.
*——. Wintering. 2nd ed. Ely, MN: Raven Productions, 2009.
Green, Ellen B. Fur Trade. Roots, vol. 10, no. 1. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1981.
Huck, Barbara. Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America: Discover the Highways that Opened a Continent. Winnipeg: Heartland, 2002.
Morse, Eric W. Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada: Then and Now. 2nd edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985.
National Park Service. Rendezvous with History: A Grand Portage Story (film). Denver: Great Divide Pictures, 2012.
Nelson, George. My First Years in the Fur Trade: The Journals of 1802–1804. Edited by Laura Peers and Theresa Schenck. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002.
Nute, Grace Lee. The Voyageur’s Highway: Minnesota’s Border Lake Land. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1941.
*Peterson, Cris. Birchbark Brigade: A Fur Trade History. Honesdale, PA: Calkins Creek, 2009.
Podruchny, Carolyn. Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
Sivertson, Howard. The Illustrated Voyageur: Paintings and Companion Stories. Duluth, MN: Lake Superior Port Cities, 1999.
